I don’t know whether this mad dash south for a bit of sun will prove to be worthwhile or not but after 270 milesn today (430 km) we are finally going to relax for a few days.

This morning dawned sunny but cold. We were up and off relatively early for us, but by the time we had stopped at LIDL and filled up with petrol it had gone 10 o’clock.

Eagle eyed Sarah has already noticed that prices in France are noticeably higher than Germany. It is easy to do a comparison when you always shop in the same store and so identical LIDL items were probably 15% more expensive. I had read somewhere that Germany was cheap for food and so it has proved.

The traffic was light on the motorway as we headed south, even Lyon proved no hold up. It wasn’t until the Paris motorway merged with ours that traffic became relatively heavy, but we had another day without hold ups, which is just as well given how far we had to travel.

As we moved south the temperature slowly increased from an initial 13 degrees to an eventual 22 degrees. That’s more like it. The weather forecast for the next 10 days is typically southern France. Sunny and warm.

One novelty we spotted on the motorway was what appeared to be individual warnings for speeding cars on the overhead gantries. We saw signs saying things like “ABC 123 Trop Vite”. Maybe I’ve interpreted it incorrectly but it seemed to be individual number plates being warned that they are travelling too fast.

We finally pulled off the motorway just south of Avignon, which regular readers will remember we visited in February, and climbed into the small hilly area known as Les Alpilles. These are rocky hills, looking dusty and barren after a long hot summer. It appears to be mostly vines and olive trees.

We are staying at Camping Municipal des Romains (43.722123, 4.808846) in the village of Mausanne-les-Alpilles. The campsite is a €17 a night ACSI site and we’ve been given a large enclosed pitch due to Basil’s lardy physique. Wifi is free but slow. Because it is the municipal site it is also the local tourist information bureau, so that should prove handy.

Basil’s new ample pitch

Both Sarah and I have been for a quick walk around the village and it is very touristy but in an upmarket twee way. There are several bakers, a fishmonger, cheese shop and many many restaurants. On paper this seemed ideal for a longer stay, but because it is Provence and by the looks of it a particularly popular corner of that department, everything is expensive. In most of the restaurants starters are about €15, mains €20 to €30 and the cheapest wine is €20 a bottle. I think we might be eating in Basil rather more than I had hoped! Maybe with a bit more investigation we might find something more reasonable.

There is lots to do in this area, so depending how we like it we could spend the next couple of weeks here before heading home, but for now we have initially booked in for four nights.